Although you have used incomplete sentences, you have said enough so that your brother will understand what you mean.
Exercise 81.—Condense as much as possible and write as telegrams, thinking before you write what are the essential parts of the message, and leaving out all else:—
1. Mother has gone to spend the day with Aunt Mary, and wishes you to call there for her in the evening and bring her home.
2. Before you come home, be sure to call on the lady who is to be teacher of the seventh grade here next year. She lives on Horning Street.
3. We are all to be away from home on a picnic the day you speak of coming to see us. We should like to have you join us.
4. There is to be a very interesting entertainment here the day I was to go home. May I stay over another day to see it?
5. The river is too swollen for the canoe trip we planned for Saturday. Bring your tools along when you come, and we will try to make a raft.
6. Henry has just passed his examinations for Dartmouth College. He will stop in Farmington to see you, on his way home, Tuesday.
7. Can your basket-ball team put off the match we were to play on Monday until Wednesday? The field we hoped to have is engaged for Monday.
8. Will your debating society be willing to meet ours, on the 27th of this month, in our class room?
9. We have just heard of the burning of your schoolhouse and wish to extend our sympathy. Will you telegraph us if there is anything we can do to help you?
10. The hour of the train on which we were to leave has been changed, and we shall not reach home until six o'clock.
11. On unpacking my trunk I cannot find my volume of Tennyson's poems. Did you put it in the trunk or was it left behind?
12. I have spilled ink on my best dress. May Aunt Jane buy a new one for me to wear at my cousin's party?
13. We cannot find the key to the back door. If you took it with you by mistake, please return it to father's business address.
14. Will the seventh grade of your school join ours in a nature-study excursion to the river next Saturday?
15. Your mother is away from home on her birthday. Send her an appropriate telegram of congratulation and greeting.
16. You are to pass through the town where a friend lives and will have a half hour wait at the station. Telegraph him, asking him to come there to see you.
50. Business Letters.—In a business letter the five main parts are very full and complete. The heading contains, as in other letters, the post office address of the writer and the date. Above the salutation is written the full name and address of the person to whom the letter is sent. There are slightly varied forms for the salutation:—
Dear Sir; My dear Sir; Dear Sirs; Dear Madam; Dear Mesdames; Sir; Gentlemen; Madam; Mesdames.
The complimentary ending is usually one of the following:—
Truly yours; Very truly yours; Faithfully yours; Respectfully yours.
Sometimes, in letters slightly more formal, these endings are written thus:—
I am,
Very truly yours,
Andrew D. Jordan.I remain,
Respectfully yours,
Andrew D. Jordan.
Under the signature of the writer is frequently put his title; and if a clerk has written the signature, per followed by his initials is placed below.